CO Issue: Should Legalizing Pot Means New Limits on Drugged Driving?

By |March 2, 2013

Colorado, one of the first states to legalize marijuana, is debating limits on drugged driving, says the Washington Post. Prosecutors and some legislators have pushed for setting a strict blood-level limit for THC, the key ingredient in cannabis. Such legislation has failed in recent years in the face of fierce opposition from marijuana advocates and defense lawyers, who say a one-size-fits-all standard doesn’t work for marijuana because it affects the body differently than alcohol.

“I haven't had a car accident since I was 18, and I've had marijuana in my system for most of that time,” said Paul Saurini, 39, one of many weed activists, or “wactivists,” who spoke out against setting a firm blood-level limit during a hearing in the state capital this week. On the other side, John Jackson, police chief in Greenwood Village, says, “We have to create some standards to protect public safety. Not doing so, in my opinion, is reckless public policy. Any time you legalize things like this, you'll have more of it on the roadway. If we had vending machines with Oxycontin, there'd be more people on Oxycontin driving on the roadways. And that's not safe.”

The legislation marks a major change for Republicans, who long hve embraced a law-and-order rallying cry. Now many GOP senators argue for rehabilitating more offenders rather than long-time incarceration.

An Arizona doctor argues that the government should have learned from previous federal anti-drug strategies that blanket prohibition doesn’t work. He calls for scrapping attempts to curtail opioids and replacing it with “harm reduction” policies.

Expensive medications for inmates can lead to substandard care and delays in treatment, and that may have lasting—even deadly—consequences for incarcerated individuals, writes a prison health care advocate.

Murder rates in the nation’s 30 largest cities are projected to fall by nearly 6 percent this year according to the latest data, undercutting claims that the nation is experiencing a “crime wave,” says the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

School safety commission proposes ending a federal guideline telling schools not to punish minorities at higher rates. The panel largely sidestepped issues relating to guns, although it favors arming some school personnel.